WHEN Shaun Crain signed up for the Shitbox Rally to raise money for the Cancer Council, he didn’t expect to get diagnosed himself.

“Everyone knows someone who has been impacted by cancer, but what I didn’t plan was that I would be diagnosed with prostate cancer while going through this rally process,” he says.

“No cancer is good, but I’ll go through treatment when I get back and, hopefully, that’ll work. Most people die with prostate cancer, not of it, which is promising, too.

“The Shitbox Rally is a good opportunity to go do something fun while raising money for now, a very personal, and important cause.”

Shaun and his co-driver Nick Nell begin the rally from October 13 in Port Douglas and are aiming to reach Adelaide, 3000 kilometres later, by October 21.

“We both worked together in the same IT department for a few years, neither of us work there any more but we’re in the same pub trivia group still,” says Shaun.

Nick explains it’s his second go at driving in the rally.

“A year or so ago, the week of the rally my co-driver got COVID-19,” he says.

“So, I didn’t get to go. This year that co-driver wasn’t available to do it again, and Shaun couldn’t get his original pick either, so I just asked if he wanted to join me instead.”

Shaun and Nick decided on their team name together, and landed on Wheelturtles.com.

“A product that I sell is called the Wheel Turtle, which is a temperature sensor that sits inside the wheel arch and looks a bit like a turtle,” says Shaun.

“It’s a fun thing, and people can see we’ve got a turtle up on the roof, so we’ve really embraced it.”

The men say it’s amazing to see the number of cars and people getting involved, “with 200 odd cars rallying three times a year”.

“The car itself you’re only allowed to spend $1500 on,” says Shaun.

“I found two of them actually, two Ford Territories in a front yard in Queanbeyan. They were essentially storage sheds, so they were holding boxes and loose clothing, kids’ toys, rats, they were terrible.

“I bought them both at $1500 each, so that was the full budget. The first ended up starting and working reasonably well after our clean-up efforts, but that’s part of the charm, the fact that it’s not meant to be a nice car.

“Each team has to raise a minimum of $5000 in fundraising, plus the additional fees we pay, and so far we’ve raised $5807.”

They say now that they’ve reached their fundraising goal, they want to see others reach theirs, too.

“There are other Canberra teams going as well, but when we looked, there were six ACT or Queanbeyan teams out of the 200 cars,” they say.

“Three were not quite at their goal yet, so we want people to make sure the other teams can be there as well.”

Shaun, of Monash, is getting the car transported to Townsville, where he will pick it up to have it at Port Douglas for the starting date.

“The rally organisers recommend not driving the car all the way to the starting location, because they want you to at least start the rally with a working car,” he says.

“There is a charity auction at the end of the rally, where you can buy your car back or sell off the car and the accessories, but at the end I plan to drive it back to Canberra, but it depends on the state of it.

“If we enjoy the rally, we’ll think about doing it again next year, if we haven’t got sick of each other, but it’s a big car. One of us can hop in the turtle on the top, we’ve both got headphones or there is one working speaker.”

When he gets back home, Shaun only has a few days to settle in before heading off to Las Vegas for a few weeks on a work trip.

“And then, finally, I’m back home in Canberra, and the next day I start four weeks of radiation treatment.”

Donate at shitboxrally.com.au